The In-Betweeners
by Rosaliebyrd13
Summary: Unsteady. Not entirely there. They are all in the in-between, and they all need to learn how to lean. Bella, Jacob, Sam, Emily, Leah, Edward. Read and Review.
1. Bella

Bella Swan is in-between something and something else. She can feel it. She can.

She just doesn't know what those two things are.

Sometimes Bella sits in her room (not really her room, her room is back in Phoenix, but it is a room, and it's where she sleeps) and thinks about all of the things that she could possibly be in-between.

It's a long list.

She's in-between her parents. She's always been in-between her parents, in-between being a Swan and a Higginbotham. And lately she's been feeling more and more in-between two states. She's not in Phoenix, Arizona anymore, but she's not in Forks, Washington either.

Not all of her anyway. (During classes, when she thinks no one will notice, she closes her eyes and _concentrates _on the feeling of being on the verge of a sun burn. It's her favorite feeling in the world.)

She's in-between books at the moment. And friends.

It's not a good combination for her, it leaves her too much time to think and get lost, but that's life. She can't decide what she wants to read next, can't decide which book to give her life over to right now (that's what she does, give her life and heart and soul away to a book, just for a little while). The feeling is unsettling.

Being in-between friends isn't the same as being in-between books.

Being in-between friends makes her feel unsteady in the world. The Cullen's are gone, and so are the few friends she managed to make before that family wrapped themselves up in her life, in her soul. So she's left stumbling around school, her thoughts not quite grounded enough, yet far too present in the here and now.

Bella Swan is in-between worlds right now.

She can feel it, how she's starting to lose her grip on the things around her, the people around her. Sometimes things slip through her as though she isn't even really there. It's a disconcerting feeling, to be in-between life and death and something not quite… understandable.

Sometimes she walks out into the woods by herself. She stands in-between the trees, not looking at the forest around her, not listening to the noise, just being. She takes off her shoes and her socks and she digs her toes into the earth and she holds on to the dirt and the roots and the bugs with all of her strength. In-between trees, Bella Swan could float away. In-between the trees, Bella Swan could release her death grip on the earth, and she could simply go.

But she doesn't. Because somehow, impossibly, Bella Swan is leaning just the tiniest bit towards staying on the ground with her father. She's leaning, only slightly, towards reading Pride & Prejudice, and towards walking up to Jessica Stanley tomorrow and asking about that cute new coat.

Bella Swan is leaning towards life.

She's still in-between. But that little lean that she has is slowly bringing her back to something… definite.


	2. Jacob

The unsteady feeling in that rests in Jacob Black's chest hasn't gone away yet.

He's not sure where it came from, but it's been throwing him off for a while now. Billy insists that it's just part of being a teenager, that itchy feeling inside that tells you you're not in any one space. Jake's not so sure.

Jacob Black feels more like he's just in-between places.

In-between being the son and being the father. In-between being a kid and being an adult.

Billy insists that Jake's still a kid. That he doesn't really need to drive his lame old dad to the doctors' appointments and that he doesn't really need to go grocery shopping and pay the bills and get good grades and argue with insurance adjustors on the phone. Jake just rolls his eyes. Because who's going to do it if he doesn't?

Three or four times a week, Jake helps his dad strip down and get in the bathtub. It's just like the pictures that they have of him as a little kid, splashing around in the bubbles and lukewarm water. But that isn't what this is. Jake's not entirely sure where his is with his father, but he knows it's not back there, in the photo albums and home videos.

Once a week, one of the twins calls. They take turns helping him make lists, endless lists of what needs to be done in the next week. They always call after Billy's asleep, and Jacob always keeps the lists in his right back pocket. Once a month Becca sends a check. Jacob doesn't ask where the money comes from. She's never talked about what her husband does for a living.

He's in-between being angry and being hurt by his sister's behavior.

They escaped, left him back on the rez. Left him stuck in-between mourning and laughing, stuck in-between crappy jobs and car parts he can't afford. He wants to claw them open, split them right down the middle so that they'll know, they'll know…

He wants them to hold him, like they did before they left. Rachel and Rebecca would sit on the couch with Jake wedged in-between them and he would feel warm all over. Safe. Like a kid.

Jake is in-between feeling like a kid with a crush and a man with a forever love.

Bella Swan makes him that way, makes him feel like they're too young to have responsibilities (she has them too, he knows, they sit like purple bruises beneath her eyes). She makes him feel like he wants to settle down, marry her, bathe their children.

Sometimes he's just so furious at the world and at his dad and his sisters and at Bella Swan especially, he has to get out. He goes from stomping through the kitchen to sprinting along the beach without even knowing how he got there. Not even time can keep him in on solid space.

When Jake finds himself outside he runs, always. Trying to get somewhere maybe. Trying to get past the Rez boundary, maybe.

Running, Jake feels like he could run to the edge of the earth, and fall right off. He really doesn't care what he falls into; he just knows that he could.

But he doesn't. Jacob Black always stops running eventually. Because he's leaning, just enough, toward something better. He's leaning towards being a kid, and he's leaning toward responsibility. He's leaning toward forgiving his sisters, and toward loving a girl named Bella Swan.

That lean is everything.


End file.
